Catching Up

Hey everyone!

I've been in Baltimore for a good 2 1/2 weeks now, and even though I have had a lot of free time, I still feel like my life is hectic. We're still in the "settling in and figuring it out" stage. I've wanted and needed to blog in order to get my thoughts together. Before I get into talking about all of my experiences in Baltimore, though, I want to return to LVC orientation. It was a truly exhausting 4 days of meeting people, having deep conversations with strangers, undergoing anti-racism training, attending lectures, and discussing business with housemates. I really pushed myself to the limits of my sanity trying to stay up until 2 AM and then getting up at 6:30 or 7 AM every morning.

In a previous blog post written on one of my orientation nights, I wrote about heterosexism in America. This post was mostly a response to one of the talks we attended, which was led by my very awesome regional director, about sexism and heterosexism. Her talk made a huge impact on me. At one point, she said the following:

I am a bisexual. I am also a Catholic. I quite enjoy Mass every weekend. A lot of people don't understand why I would stay in a church that wants to deny gay people the right to marry the person they love. But here's the thing: I grew up Catholic. This is my community. Mine. My own. I am not going to let them PUSH ME OUT just because I am different. I wrote a letter to the Pope the other day asking him to reconsider the church's stance on gay marriage. All my friends are like, "He's never going to respond!" Hahaha. 

It may have been just an anecdote to her, but this way of looking at things had never occurred to me before. I, too, grew up a Catholic, but I began to be disillusioned with Catholicism as I grew older. I fundamentally oppose much of Catholic doctrine. I don't agree with the church's stance on gay marriage, birth control, sex before marriage, divorce, the fact that women can't be priests (which I take to be sexist), and a few of their other attitudes/ teachings as well. I always said to myself, "Why would I stay in the Catholic church if I don't agree with it 100%?" I always believed that staying in the church would mark me as a person who owned all of those beliefs, and I didn't want to give others the wrong impression about what I believed. But my regional director's talk gave me a whole new perspective. Her idea makes so much sense. After all, if everyone who disagrees with Catholic teachings leaves the church, it will never change. What the Church needs are members who will strive to reform it from the inside out--who will challenge it from within. After all, why would church leaders feel compelled to listen to "sinners" or "heretics" from "over there"? Why would the church listen to "those gay people" or "those feminists" or "those prostitutes"? The church needs to recognize that it is isolating and ostracizing many of its OWN...many who would love to be a part of its celebrations and draw strength from Jesus' teachings. It is pushing away many young minds who could contribute to its congregations and make it stronger.

Anyway, I thought about it for a while, and I might consider rejoining the Catholic church if I considered it to be "my community" (and thus felt like I was being pushed out of my community). But at this point, I don't really feel any strong connections with any parish or any parishioners. As such, I am going to use this year to try to find a faith or a faith community or a regular spiritual practice that suits me well. So far I have discussed spirituality with my housemates in our "spirituality nook" and have attended a Unitarian/Universalist church service. I intend to explore spirituality/faith/religion a lot more this year. But props to my regional director for her excellent perspective. It answered a question I have had for a long time, and it certainly gave me something to chew on.

I'll probably be writing a couple more blog posts in the upcoming week. Until then, let's drink to new perspectives with the famous beer of Baltimore, "National Bohemian" (Natty Boh)!

Love you all,
Margaret

Follow my Journey in LVC/ Heterosexism in America

Welcome to the beginning of my blogging about my experiences in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps! I'm very excited to share my journey with all of you. 

Tonight is the last night of orientation in Minnesota, and I move to Baltimore tomorrow. I'm extremely tired and cannot commit to an entirely original reflection. But I have to get this out. LVC has so far encouraged me to consider the deep injustices faced by the LGBTQQIA community. The conversations surrounding this topic have deeply moved me. 

To all of my gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, and/or asexual friends who have suffered from discrimination and social injustice because of how you feel or who you love, I am so incredibly sorry and want you to know that you have my support to be the way you were born.

Here are some of the advantages heterosexual people enjoy in modern American society: 

• Heterosexuals do not have to worry about having that "conversation" with their parents, siblings, friends, etc. about who they are sexually attracted to, nor do they have to worry that such a conversation may potentially disrupt their relationships with those closest to them. 
• Heterosexuals have the freedom to legally marry the person they love in any American state.
• Heterosexuals need not avoid PDA, such as holding hands with a lover in public, for fear that someone will find their behavior morally reprehensible, sinful, or repulsive. 
• Heterosexuals in all states do not have to worry that they might be fired by their employer because their sexuality goes against their employer's religious beliefs. 
• Heterosexuals don't have to worry about being deemed unfit to raise children based on their sexual orientation.  
• Heterosexuals are not accused of "recruiting" others to join their sexual orientation. 
• Heterosexuals do not have to justify their sexuality to people of a different sexual orientation, nor are they called upon to explain what they think has caused them to be heterosexual. 
• Heterosexuals are not frequently asked when and how they first decided that they are heterosexual.
• The sexuality of heterosexuals is not often suspected to be a "phase." 
• Heterosexuals are most frequently seen as people first and sexual beings second. 

To my LGBTQQIA friends and followers, please know that, in the words of my Regional Director, Sue Ryan, "YOU ARE LOVE!" Know that you are okay the way you are and that you are not doing anything WRONG! Believe that our generation has the power to change the hateful conditions of heterosexism in America. 

I will be blogging more about this topic, but in the meantime, I want to share this beautiful poem with all of you: 

Wild Geese

by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.